Need Grant Writing Help? - Program Budget - Part 7 of 11

Oh, the excitement!  It's time to talk about numbers!

Ok, the truth is I love numbers.  In the past I've sat on a variety of grant panels, including having the honor to evaluate proposals for a state arts council, and I love the numbers part.  If you really know your organization and your project, how you display the numbers and the sentences you use to describe them in my opinion can tell a funder if you will be successful or not.

This may seem straight forward to some of you, but you'd be surprised how many people mess up these next statements.... a budget MUST include BOTH INCOME and EXPENSES AND within the income YOU NEED TO INCLUDE THE POTENTIAL FUNDING YOU ARE WRITING THE PROPOSAL AND ASKING FOR!!!!  Hello?  Why would a foundation give you money if you given them a budget showing you can afford the project without them?  Seriously, almost 50% of grant writers mess this up.  And another 50% tend to tell us what they are spending money on but forget to show how they are paying for the project.

Things to think about as you prepare to write the budget:

• Establish the budget period, the length of time the budget covers.
• Estimate expenses, obtaining cost estimates as necessary.
• Decide whether and how to include over head costs.
• Estimate the donated goods and services that will be used.
• Estimate the anticipated revenues for the project.
• Check that the budget as a whole makes sense and conveys the right message to the funder, which is this: the budget is appropriate and in line with the objectives and methods of the program to be funded.

Because I love budgets, I'm so happy to make this easy for all of you and give lots of things to think about in a step by step manner on this section.  :)

Let's start by thinking about items we need in a budget:

• Program staff salaries and benefits (there is NOTHING wrong with acknowledging that people don't work for free - use percentages if needed)
• Office space (which may be assigned a percentage based on your program budget a a portion of your organization's overall budget)
• Supplies (office, educational, and so forth)
• Equipment
• Program-related travel
• Program-related rent )Percentage of non-profit office space used)
• Printing and copying

Look back to the methods you developed and makes sure you have listed how you are funding those methods and the costs for all things within them.

Ok, next let's talk about revenue.

• INCLUDE THE GRANT YOU ARE REQUESTING.  Again, this is a mandatory part of this budget.
• In-Kind
• WHY YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN-KIND
• It allows the full scope and cost of the project to be understood by the funder.
• It demonstrates community support for your project and agency, which is very important to donors.
• It reminds you and the donors and volunteers of the value of their contribution.
• Think about it this way - Why would a funder want to support your organization's program if you cannot demonstrate that your own community supports it?
• List the other funders you are applying to (um, why shouldn't you be asking multiple people to give you money?)
• Will you be generating fees? (Membership, tickets, classes, etc.)
• Fundraising events - are you holding an event to specifically support this?
• Annual fund - are you using some of this?
• Sponsors - are you getting sponsors specifically for this?

As a general rule, funders expect to see a balanced budget for a project, one in which income and expenses are equal.  If there is a large surplus or deficit, yeah, you probably aren't going to get funded.

So hopefully something that seems scary to so many now seems not so bad.  If it doesn't make sense to you, it won't make sense to the potential funders.  If you can balance your check book, you can write a budget for a grant proposal.  List all the income, list all the expenses.  Don't overdraw the account, but spend what you bring in for this and don't save for a rainy day.  It's that straight forward.